Riot Grrrl’s powerful roar ignited a fire within me and my friends, inspiring us to celebrate our creativity and own our righteous anger, and to amplify our voices against sexism, sexual violence, and racism.

Haley Anne, Exeter, Rhode Island

Bella, Richmond, Virginia

Christian, Texas

Anna, Brazil

When three young members of the Russian feminist collective Pussy Riot were arrested for performing their “punk prayer” protesting Russian president Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, their intrepid Riot Grrrl spirit inspired me and thousands of others to support their fight for freedom.

Astrorice, Vancouver, British Columbia

Tavi, Oak Park, Illinois

Marian, Forest Hills, New York

Adela and Kathryn, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Mateo, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Molly, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Sarah

Those three women—Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich—have been sentenced to three years in prison, just for speaking up for their rights. This is outrageous! But it is exciting that their courage is galvanizing a new generation of activists and mobilizing artists to speak out on their behalf.

Alis, Chesire, UK

Hannah, Ridgefield, Connecticut

Morgan, Savannah, Georgia

Amanda, Brazil

Emalie, Seattle

Dani

Alex, Loveland, Colorado

Britney, Brooklyn

Camille, Lizzy, and Izzi, Portland, Oregon

Here’s a quick timeline of how these young women recently rocked the Kremlin and became heard around the world:

Victoria, Mexico

February 2012: Wearing bright balaclavas, Pussy Riot perform their song “Virgin Mary, Chase Putin Away,” critiquing the intimate ties between the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church, before being kicked out by security.

Ruby, Providence, Rhode Island

March: Before the presidential election, Russian law enforcement arrest students Maria (24), Nadezhda (22), and Yekaterina (30) and charge them with “public hooliganism.” Their “riot for rights” begins to spread beyond Russian borders as outraged supporters participate in solidarity demonstrations.

Tess, Provo, Utah

April to May: Amnesty International launches a global campaign demanding Pussy Riot’s freedom. A judge denies their appeals for bail and release, and Pussy Riot remains in confinement.

July: Pussy Riot goes on a hunger strike as they await trial. Their lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, insists that “there is nothing in Russian law that could qualify [Pussy Riot’s] actions as criminal.”

Georgia, Kent, UK

Early August: Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna publically condemns Pussy Riot’s imprisonment and Russia’s oppressive regime in her blog post “SERIOUSLY THEY ARE IN A FUCKING CAGE,” calling their trial “a farce” and advocating for a global and intergenerational “We Are All Pussy Riot” art and activist movement.

After a trial the media has called an “absurd and outrageous” witch-hunt, the court sentences the trio to two years in a prison camp for “crudely undermining the social order.”

Charlotte, Monmouthshire, Wales

Zoe, La Jolla, California

Isabella, Ohio

Terry, Ohio

Bobcat, California

Stephanie, Chicago

Huaising, New York City

C.V.M, Germany

Zoë, Oberlin, Ohio

Caitlin, UK

Leo Tolstoy, courtesy of Marly and Suze, the Netherlands

Esme, Suffolk, England

Here’s why we stand with Pussy Riot. They are in jail for nonviolently speaking out against an oppressive regime. They are being persecuted for being feminists. And they are rallying a new generation of activists who are concerned about government attacks on free expression, gender equality, economic inequality, and election corruption around the world.

M.

Hazel, New York City

Lori, Romania

Their brave and unapologetic defiance (read their inspiring closing statements here) has spurred protests around the world, signaling a new movement of rebellion in Moscow, New York, Germany, Iran, and beyond.

Chio, Plainfield, Illinois

Fran, Calgary, Alberta

Becky, UK

Bel, Oxford, England

It’s a shame that lots of the reporting about Pussy Riot’s groundbreaking case has focused more on their “photogenic” looks rather than their badass
political messages and courage.

Gabby, New York City

Leora, San Diego

Antigoni, Cyprus

Pussy Riot needs our support. These women need justice. But, also, their case also serves to bring up a lot of other cases, of political prisoners who might not fit a privileged, white ideal.

Rachael, Washington, DC

Tess, Portsmouth, UK

Marissa, Whittier, California

We must also remember to support political prisoners whose stories may be
disregarded by mainstream media. These include, currently, the plights of CeCe McDonald and Bei Bei Shuai.

Kate, Northern Ireland

Rowanne, Virginia

Samuel, Seattle

Collin and Alexia, Louisville, Kentucky

CeCe, a 23-year-old transwoman of color, was sentenced to over 40 months in a men’s prison after she used force to defend herself and her friends against a group of men who targeted them with racist and transphobic attacks.

Emma, Brooklyn

Krissy, Reno, Nevada

After spending over a year in an Indiana jail, Bei Bei Shuai was imprisoned for attempted suicide during her pregnancy. While Shuai was released on bail in May, she is still being forced to wear a GPS tracking device while she awaits her trial for “attempted feticide and murder of a viable fetus.” Like CeCe’s predicament, Bei Bei’s story remains on the margins as coverage of Pussy Riot is prioritized in the public conversation.

Nina, Tarzana, California

Sammy, Chicago

Amy Rose, Brooklyn

Maria

Jamia, New York City

But: if there’s any silver lining to what’s happening to the women in Pussy Riot, it’s this: we’re all not only talking about Maria, Nadezhda, and Yekaterina now—we’re also talking about CeCe; we’re talking about Bei Bei.

Juliette, Australia

Jenny, Brooklyn

Neyat, Hawthorne, California

Courage is contagious. Thanks to the groundswell of support for Pussy
Riot, now is the perfect time for us to learn from their bravery and endurance to kindle our own revolutions.

loved everyone’s pics! And look that’s me there! ^^
Its good to see all these people involved and supporting Pussy Riot! This was a good to way to protest and tell the world that we stand for Pussy Riot!

This whole article made me feel warm and fuzzy. It brightens my day to see all of these wonderful people standing up for something they believe in. I love all of these people. I am up there in spirit, but I wasn’t aware of this whole ordeal goin’ on in the mag o’ rookie. I love how truly uniquely powerful each photograph was. I’m giving all of you serious cyberhugs right noww oww.

my whole issue with the pussy riot thing is that if I were in church trying to pray I would find it extremely disrespectful and offensive for someone to come in and protest. That being said, a civil conversation between the church goers and the band would be so much more productive than the two year sentence. that is incredibly unjustified. and for that I stand with Pussy Riot.

This Pussy Riot thing is ridiculous. These girls “unlawfully entered a sealed part of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral reserved for a religious ceremonies and hoisted themselves in front of the altar which is reserved specifically for clergy members, and [started] reading prayers and other religious texts and inserted dancing and chanting which were insulting for religious believers.” They crossed themselves, bowed to the alter and started singing songs that have lyrics such as “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away…shit, shit, the Lord’s shit!….Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist.” They videotaped all of this and used it in the video-clip for their song.

You don’t “protest” like this in a classroom full of kids if you’re against the Department of Education. You don’t crash someone else’s house and behave in offensive ways because you hate their landlord. If these girls premediditated such an act like this in a Synagog there would be rightful uproar from the Jewish people, as well as millions of others who are shocked by their level of insolence (who possibly are currently defending the Pussy Riot act against the orthodox Church). I don’t agree with the virdict but I do know that the level of international sympathy for these girls is disproportionate to their innocence. There are masses of people around the world who are tortured and improsoned for “crimes” that include being at the wrong place at the wrong time or privately praying to the “wrong” god . What Pussy Riot have done is not Freedom of Speech. In Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights it says that “[e]veryone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference”, although it specifies that with this right there are “special duties and responsibilities…[f]or respect of the rights of others”.

Already there are Pussy Riot supporters vandalising churches and crosses in parts of Russia and Eastern Europe. And the media coverage of their story is magnaminous.

Thank you! You put exactly how I feel about this whole Pussy Riot thing into words.
They disrespected a religion, and though I’m agnostic, that doesn’t sit right with me.
They could’ve found a more peaceful, more respectful way to protest against Putin.

You can’t view what happened without the context. Pussy Riot got together after Putin announced he was running for prime minister – yet again-, and a really messed up election. Millions of russians protested against the results of these elections, and shortly after that, the government made protests illegal.
Some of these protests were actions by Pussy Riot, like the song they played in the Red Square. The “Punk Prayer” was a protest against the interference of the Orthodox Church in State matters, not against the religion.
Also, as a guerilla group, they are doing this for the shock value as a means of bringing the public’s attention to the matter.
Some of the people in Pussy Riot are also involved with Voina, which protests against corruption in the russian police. Their actions are way more drastic.
I understand that some people might have been offended by their actions, but even the orthodox church agrees the verdict is unfair. Their action was in no way motivated by religious hatred, and the trial was a joke.

Their performance art was about separation of church and state and free expression– like Sphinx said above ^^^–the context and timing is important to consider. I don’t believe their action was driven by hatred or malice towards people of faith at all.

In fact, as a woman of spirit and faith I really appreciated them drawing attention to institutional patriarchy within the political church that undermines women’s voices and leadership.

When I hear of criticism about them coming from Christians or clergy I can’t help but think of Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be judged.

+3 i also don’t support them. I do think that the time they have to spend in prison is too long, but their action was a vandalism no offense.
I am not Russian ( Latvian ) but i can’t stand Putin and his political games either, but this clearly isn’t the best kind of protest, besides if it’s a protest against him why are there lyrics like “Virgin Mary, become a feminist” that’s a whole different topic!
Also my mother is an orthodox, she isn’t offended by any means, but she does think that this is vandalism in church and unnecessary.

FREE PUSSY RIOT! Two members actually fled Russia to escape arrest. n__n There’s a benefit concert or something in LA happening like today(?), ugh. I wish I could go. And I totally forgot to submit my picture, siiiigh. I’m so happy that all these people are supporting Pussy Riot, though. Yayyy human beings!

In the future, when you make announcements that involve sending things to email addresses, could you type the address out instead of writing “here” and making a link? My email is online, not on my personal computer, so it doesn’t help to click on the link and have my computer’s built-in email open — I can’t use it, so I can’t see the address. Thanks!

Also, is CeCe McDonald still in prison? I can’t find a good timeline of what has happened to her since the first sentencing…

CeCe is still in prison. Check out this site to support her and to find out how to send her letters and books to show support. You can also learn more about how to donate your help or your funds on this site: http://supportcece.wordpress.com/

I love every single one of these pics. Samuel from Seattle, you are beautiful and you are sitting in an amazing room.

Jamia, SO MANY THANK YOUS for also mentioning CeCe McDonald and Bei Bei Shuai. When the Pussy Riot movement began to pick up speed, the hyperfocus on them combined with the lack of focus on unjustly incarcerated women in the USA, especially WOC, bothered me a LOT. I kept fighting for Pussy Riot/retweeting relevant things/telling people about PR because they’re just as unfairly imprisoned, but there is so much of the same injustice happening here that sadly gets brushed off by too many activists.

As an orthodox christian, this post makes me very sad. Not upset, just disappointed in rookie. I thought that this was a place that respected all views of life, including religion, race,sexuality, so on and so on. But you can not say that you are a place open for all people when you support and show such sympathy for women who so blatantly disrespected a place of worship.

What if they disrupted and vandalized a muslim mosque?Or what if they burned torahs in a Jewish Synagog? Would you still support them? Or do you only “Stand for Pussy Riot” because they are rebelling against traditional Christian views?

In my book anyone who acts so horribly in ANY place or worship doesn’t deserve such incredible international sympathy. Whether the place of worship be Muslim, Jewish, Wiccan, Protestant Christian, Orthodox,Catholic, Buddhist, Mormon whatever.

Please, Please see that there is another side to this story. I love the church, and to think of a group of people doing what they did in such a beautiful place brings tears to my eyes. I know I might be murdered in the comment section for this, and some of those might be by some of the creators of this site.

But if you honestly say you are open to all opinions and views, then maybe you can do a little reading on another side of this story.

Hey, I am a Christian and Rookie doesn’t hate me! I am totally fine with it but I think it’s alright to be offended too.
I think mainly it is because I don’t have that much respect for the Russian Orthodox Church. I have plenty of respect for the worshippers and they have a right to be upset of course. But the Russian Church is, bluntly put, corrupt. In protesting in a church, Pussy Riot highlighted how intwined the church and government are! I think Churches should be a beacon for the downtrodden, but when a Church is protecting the politicians and not the citizens worshipping (or not!) in their churches, then there is something seriously seriously wrong.
I think sometimes, in such a situation, it is necessary to be controversial to get your opinion heard. In my mind, it demonstrates how desperate the situation is when you have to go to such measures TO be heard.

Maggie–Thanks for your opinion. I just wanted to let you know that as the person who wrote the text of this piece I want to make clear that this post is not about condoning “hatred” of any religion or “organized religion” in general.

I am a Christian, I am a woman who is spiritual and a person of faith–the passion and the goal of this show of solidarity was driven by about a fundamental truth most religions agree upon: love and community.

I wrote a comment above explaining more of this but wanted to say that people of faith have diverse points of view. I 100% support Pussy Riot and their right to free speech because free expression allows me (and others) to worship in the way I want to when I want to.

Pussy Riot has spoken out and said that they do not approve of people who have been cutting down crosses and vandalizing. They have apologized to those they offended clarifying their goal. They have disavowed actions from copycats who have desecrated religious artifacts etc.

I personally believe that intimate and corrupt ties between the church and government are far more sacrilegious and harmful for the world than Pussy Riot doing a minute long demonstration to expose a repressive government.

I wish I could have met Samuel from Seattle! I’m from Seattle, too, and I was at the Rookie Road Trip meet-up, but I felt like all of us Seattle-ites were a little too scared to talk to each other…or maybe we were just in awe of how awesome everyone looked. :)
Anyway, I have Russian Orthodox friends who support Pussy Riot, and so do I.

Eh. They were clearly determined to get arrested and net some media attention. They succeeded in both. Possibly more than they anticipated, but folks who’ve jerked Putin around have ended up far worse and they’ll get out of jail relatively soon and with their radical cred greatly enhanced. Meanwhile, I’m certainly no fan of the Russian Orthodox Church or of Putin, but his administration’s usually good for a vote against the U.S.’s latest stirred-up-conflict-du-jour in the UN Security Council, and although I share several concerns with them, these kids are anarchists, and they’re only really useful for throwing at other organizations that one wishes to see bedevilled (“Here! Cope with some lunatic monkeys! Qwatz!”) so I can’t really work myself into much of a lather over the whole thing. Putin’s got a black eye but is still there to say “Nyet!” in the UN, Pussy Riot/Voina’s anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, anti-theocratic message has been promoted and public disappointment with Putin’s government has increased, and some anarchists are behind bars. To this old Bolshie, it sounds like everything worked out pretty well. ;)

As a russian i am really concerned about what is going on in my home country under the regime of Putin. It is ashaming and extremly sad to see what he does to the country and its people. Pussy Riot have my deep respect and all my support for being brave enough to speak up and fight. I so much stand with them!!
Thank you for posting this on your site, I have expected nothing less of Rookie and am really happy to see this here.
Feminists of the world – unite!

i love Rookie to death but you guys don’t understand what’s going on in my country. how can you support them if you don’t even know all that crap about politics and religion? it’s all much more complicated than you might think. is it so pretty cool to be against Christians? i hate Muslims but im not going to invade their church or sth and sing there and mock at all those people. it’s ridiculuos.

We do not hate Christians. Several of our staffers are Christians. As Jamia said in these here comments: “I’m a person of faith and I support Pussy Riot. Their performance art was about separation of church and state and free expression…I don’t believe their action was driven by hatred or malice towards people of faith at all. In fact, as a woman of spirit and faith I really appreciated them drawing attention to institutional patriarchy within the political church that undermines women’s voices and leadership. When I hear of criticism about them coming from Christians or clergy I can’t help but think of Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be judged.”

Also, half of my family are Muslims, and even if they weren’t, it’s not cool for you to say you “hate Muslims.” That’s the same bigotry you’re accusing us of.

Rookie definitely does not “hate religion”. I am a very spiritual person and I have never felt offended by anything on Rookie – especially not this, which is not about religion but about protest and freedom!

I have to say, if your idea of religion is wrapped up in buildings and rituals rather than your personal actions and relationship to what you consider the divine, then you should probably think about the things you have been taught and what is actually important.

I’m unsettled by the anger that I’m seeing toward the fact that Pussy Riot protested inside a church, or the comparisons to burning Torahs or vandalizing mosques. Those would be acts of hate specifically toward a religion. This was a political protest, not an act of hate. Can you not see the difference?

Exactly! People seem to be ignoring the context, as I said some comments above.
Their protest was in no way motivated by religious hatred.
These out of place comparisons and the “i hate Muslims” comment really worry me.

I don’t understand how the “I hate muslims” comment was allowed to be published? I was under the impression that all comments were moderated and looked at before being published. It’s just uncalled for and ignorant and there is no place for crappy statements like that on rookie.

im sorry girls, im really sorry, i was just dazed and overwhelmed when i saw this article. i was just angry. and i don’t hate Muslims , it was exaggerated. the matter is that other girls inspired by that action keep on doing harm to religious monuments. one of them being naked climbed to the monument of Andrey Pervozvanuy’s and cut off the cross with a saw. i jast want it to stop. i was angry, sorry Rookie.

Well, at least you apologized.
It’s ok to feel angry, just don’t direct your anger to other people who have nothing to do with that.
Also, Femen (the group responsible for the action you mentioned) is not connected with Pussy Riot, and the band did not agree with the destruction of these monuments.

I’m sorry, but I see this article stupid. Vacuous. A recollection of cute girls from wealthy countries saying how much they support Pussy Riot… WOW, HOW DEEP. I’M SERIOUS, YOU GUYS, THIS MADE ME CHANGE MY PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD AND POLITICS. And the little explanation below does not save it. Come on. You can’t see an incident like this an only be disturbed because of those three girls on jail. Think, “If they are on jail, who else can be? How fucked up is Russia actually?” And then get informed about it, write a good article, and blow your reader’s minds. THAT is helping to activism. Not taking pictures of yourself saying how much you support someone.

lovecat: The power of standing in support and solidarity should never be underestimated. We did it in the way we felt was appropriate at this time and have made no claims that this is the one action, the one solution, or the only show of solidarity out there.

There are many ways you raise awareness and visibility about an important issue and this was ours for this particular piece.

If you have other ideas about tactics to help the cause I hope you’ll implement them and channel your energy towards proactively taking action.

the Pussy Riot trial was a farce, and they did their protest in a church because the Russian Orthodox Church as a political body supports Putin and his drawing board party United Russia.
that being said, Bradley Manning could use some public support too. and he’s closer to home for many Rookie readers, i think.

Psst! Hey! Can you keep a secret? This month's theme is TRUST, which is about honesty and its opposite, plus so much more. If you’d like to entrust us with an essay or a photo set, comic, poem, short story, or any other pitch you’ve got, please email it to submission@rookiemag.com. ✪

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Rookie is a website for teenage girls. With monthly-themed content, we update three times every weekday, and once a day on weekends. Click here to find out where to send stuff you'd like us to see. Learn about the people who write this thing here.